Michigan
Iowa State Classic
Wolverines Hit the Road to Vanderbilt, Iowa State and Kent State
2/7/2018 4:00:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
» The throwers and sprinter Taylor McLaughlin head off to Vanderbilt for the Music City Challenge on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 9-10).
» Distance runners are heading to Iowa State for national caliber action at the Iowa State Classic on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 9-10).
» Sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers will compete at the Kent State National Qualifier on Saturday (Feb. 9).
» This is the final big weekend of competition ahead of the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 23-24.
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., Feb. 9-10 -- Vanderbilt Music City Challenge (Nashville, Tenn.), 6:30 p.m. CST (Friday) | 2 p.m. CST (Saturday)
Meet Information | Live Results
Fri-Sat., Feb. 9-10 -- Iowa State Classic (Ames, Iowa), 5:30Â p.m. CST (Friday) | 1:50 p.m. CST (Saturday)
Meet Information | Live Results | Watch Live on Flotrack Pro
Saturday, Feb. 10 -- Kent State National Qualifier (Kent, Ohio), 2 p.m.
Meet Information | Live Results
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After spending nearly all of the 2018 indoor track and field season within the confines of the new world-class U-M Indoor Track Building, the No. 20-ranked University of Michigan men are splitting up this weekend for one final big regular-season push.
With the Big Ten Championships looming just 16 days away, the Wolverines are parting ways to the Vanderbilt Music City Challenge, the Iowa State Classic and the Kent State National Qualifier this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 9-10) to sharpen themselves against one more round of national-level competition.
Throwers Joe Ellis, Grant Cartwright, Andrew Liskowitz and Manning Plater, as well as sprinter Taylor McLaughlin, will compete at Vanderbilt; Aaron Baumgarten, Connor Mora, Ben Flanagan and the distance squad will face stiff competition at Iowa State; and the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers are set to contend at Kent State.
Live results will be available for all three competitions, and fans can watch the action at Iowa State live on Flotrack Pro. Updates will be posted throughout the day on the program's official social media accounts.
In addition to the quality opposition all three squads will face, the runners will also acclimate themselves from competing on their banked 200-meter track to the type of flat 300-meter track they will see at the SPIRE Institute for Big Tens on Feb. 23-24.
MUSIC CITY CHALLENGE
• Fresh off taking down the nation's top-ranked weight thrower at the Power Five Invitational this past Saturday (Feb. 3), Ellis and Cartwright are aiming to build on that performance in Nashville on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. CT. Ellis has already three times exceeded his career best from last season, topping out so far at 22.71m (74 feet, 5.25 inches) for No. 2 in the nation. Cartwright, last year's national runner-up in the event, has not yet landed the big throw of his own, but at 22.33m (73-3.25) he is No. 5 nationally and throwing nearly a meter-and-a-half farther that at this same time last year. The duo will get another test this weekend as they face No. 12-ranked Isaac Ingram of Southern Illinois, No. 16 Aaron Zedella of Ohio State, and No. 21 Dempsey McGuigan of Ole Miss.
• Last Saturday was a career day in the shot put for both Liskowitz and Cartwright, who threw 19.36m (63-6.25) and 19.02m (62-5), respectively, to become the farthest-throwing shot put duo in school history. With Liskowitz ranked No. 10 nationally and just 14 centimeters from the school record and Cartwright at No. 17 on the edge of the nationals qualifying cutoff (the top-16 go to the NCAA Championships), they are two among a field filled with national contenders that will compete at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday. Two-time All-American and reigning Big Ten Outdoor champion Nicholas Demaline of Ohio State is in the field, ranked No. 12, as is No. 13 Jared Kern of Southern Illinois, an All-American and the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Indoor champion.
• McLaughlin will take another run at the 400 on Saturday at 3:35 p.m. CT, following up on his season's best 47.05 at home this past weekend and his blistering 4x400 relay split of 46.24 in a strong race on Vanderbilt's 300-meter track. McLaughlin will be up against multiple-time NCAA Championships competitor Warren Hazel of Southern Illinois -- ranked just one spot behind No. 29 McLaughlin at No. 30 nationally -- as well as former All-Americans Ventavius Sears and Emmanuel Dasor. He will be aiming for the mid-to-low 46-second range to better position himself for a run at NCAA qualifying.
IOWA STATE CLASSIC
• After running to All-America honors and one of the best cross country seasons in school history, Ben Flanagan is set to make his 2018 indoor debut in Ames, Iowa, on Friday. Final race assignments have not yet been announced, but Flanagan will likely race the invitational section of the 5,000 meters competition at 6:25 p.m. CT. Though the setting will be much different than his last competitive effort in November, the opposition will feel much the same; of the 40 men named All-Americans in cross country, 14 are in the field for the 5,000 at Iowa State, including national champion (and fellow Canadian) Justyn Knight of Syracuse. With a career-best of 14:02.91 from this meet two years ago, Flanagan is ranked No. 10 in program history and is looking to cut about 10 seconds from that personal record to put him in qualifying position for NCAAs.
• Aaron Baumgarten is coming to Iowa State off a strong 8:06.87 effort at 3,000 meters, and is looking to chase an NCAA qualifying time on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. CT. With a career-best 7:57.32 from a year ago, he will be aiming at chopping a few more seconds off that time to clock a time in the low 7:50s that would get him closer to nationals. He will have an ideal field to help pull him along to that goal, with three top-10 finishers from the NCAA Cross Country Championships and five more All-Americans on the entries list.
• Miler Connor Mora will try to bounce back from a disappointing run in Boston two weekends ago with another go at the four-minute barrier Saturday at 1:15 p.m. CT. He will have a field that is plenty quick enough to get him there with the likes of potential national title contender Sean McGorty of Stanford and the All-American duo of Kigen Chemadi and Jacob Choge of Middle Tennessee State in the race with him.
• Rounding out the crew at Iowa State are Micah Beller (5,000 meters); Andrew Lorant, Jack Aho and Billy Bund (3,000 meters); and Andrew Lorant, Luke Wallace, Anthony Berry, and Chase Barnett (mile). Barnett is closest to becoming the 12th man in Michigan history to crack four minutes in the mile, with his 4:03.77 from this meet two seasons ago.
KENT STATE NATIONAL QUALIFIER
• Leading the sprints crew at Kent State is Khoury Crenshaw, who just missed by .01 of a second the 60-meter win at the Power Five Invitational with a season's best 6.77. Though he has the Big Ten Championships upcoming -- where he ran his career best 6.71 a year ago -- he will be looking to get closer to the 6.65 threshold that has qualified for NCAAs in each of the past four seasons. He kicks off the day in the prelims at 2 p.m., vying for a spot in the final at 3 p.m.
• Triple jump newcomer Daniel Butael and veteran Kevin Stephens, Jr. made history at the Power Five Invitational as they became the first pair of Michigan teammates to break 15 meters. Butael, ranked No. 35 nationally, will look to continue up the NCAA rankings with an improvement on his 15.50m (50-10.25) leap from Saturday, while Stephens will look to build on his best regular-season jump of 15.04m (49-4.25). Those two will jump following the conclusions of the women's and men's long jump and the women's triple jump, approximately at 5 p.m.
• With each and every meet, Roland Amarteifio is getting closer and closer to becoming just the eighth man in program history to run faster than 8.00 in the 60-meter hurdles. He clocked a career-best 8.03 in the prelims at the Power Five Invitational to move to No. 9 on the all-time Michigan list in the event before taking runner-up honors in the final. He will run the prelims at 2:30 p.m., hoping to advance to the 3:10 p.m. final.
• Also competing for the Wolverines are Josiah Carpenter and Nicholas Desmond (60 meters); Sierra Hendrix-Williams and Drake Johnson (60-meter hurdles); Vail Hartman, Desmond Melson, Blake Washington and Carpenter (400 meters); Hartman, Amarteifio, Nicholas and Washington (200 meters); Brandon Piwinski, Alex Klemm and Max Wagner (high jump); and Kevin Haughn (pole vault).
WOLVERINES IN THE RANKINGS
• The Wolverines checked in at No. 24 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Team Rankings, up nine spots from the previous edition. Among Big Ten teams, Michigan trails only No. 7 Penn State and No. 11 Indiana.
• Wolverines in the Big Ten rankings:
| Name | Event | Rank |
| Khoury Crenshaw | 60m | 8 |
| Taylor McLaughlin | 200m | 9 |
| Taylor McLaughlin | 400m | 3 |
| Chase Barnett | Mile | 4 |
| Aaron Baumgarten | 3000m | 7 |
| Micah Beller | 3000m | 8 |
| Jacob Lee | 5000m | 3 |
| Joost Plaetinck | 5000m | 8 |
| 4 x 400m Relay | 3 | |
| Distance Medley Relay | 3 | |
| Brandon Piwinski | High Jump | 8 |
| Daniel Butael | Triple Jump | 4 |
| Kevin Stephens, Jr. | Triple Jump | 9 |
| Andrew Liskowitz | Shot Put | 2 |
| Grant Cartwright | Shot Put | 3 |
| Joe Ellis | Weight Throw | 1 |
| Grant Cartwright | Weight Throw | 3 |
• Wolverines in the national NCAA rankings (top 16 advance to NCAAs in individual events, top 12 relay teams qualify)
| Name | Event | Rank |
| Taylor McLaughlin | 400m | 29 |
| Jacob Lee | 5000m | 16 |
| Daniel Butael | Triple Jump | 35 |
| Andrew Liskowitz | Shot Put | 10 |
| Grant Cartwright | Shot Put | 17 |
| Joe Ellis | Weight Throw | 2 |
| Grant Cartwright | Weight Throw | 5 |
Players Mentioned
